Today we’d like to introduce you to MNTIC Minnesota Translator and Interpreter Cooperative .
Hi MNTIC, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
Our story started with a group of court interpreters who worked together on an interpreter advocacy program. The original five people spent two years of planning and research to come up with the current MNTIC model. After time spent working together, the idea formed to create a worker-owned and run cooperative. Their goal was to have more control over working conditions and types of jobs and ultimately form a working community of highly qualified interpreters and translators. With the help of organizations like the Twin Cities Newspaper & Communication Guild and LEDC, on September 1st of, 2021, MNTIC was officially incorporated.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey has been a smooth road?
The most impactful obstacle has been the interpreter and translator community. Other large agencies have created such a community of mistrust and competition that it has been challenging to show other interpreters or translators that MNTIC is different. We are cooperative. That means equal opportunity, a community of support, shared marketing, and a group of industry consultants. Ultimately we are a community trying to improve our members’ work lives. We each have our work and industry experience, so previously we may have competed with each other, but when we come together, we are collaborators. We are all MNTIC; that’s why it’s cooperative. We work together as MNTIC to help our clients, and ultimately everyone benefits. We have worked hard to show our larger translator community that we are different from the agencies. Our second biggest obstacle has been that we have never done this before! We are all interpreters and translators first, and throughout the process of creating MNTIC, we have all still been working full-time. It’s been a learning experience for us all. We have had to learn how to do everything from creating our first website to writing bylaws. It’s been a challenge to have the time and knowledge.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
MNTIC provides the highest quality interpretation and translation services to ensure speakers of all languages can participate fully in public life. Our business is collectively owned and run by qualified interpreters and translators with decades of experience in our field. We are dedicated to ensuring that speakers of all languages can participate fully in public life, undeterred by language barriers. We advocate for the interpreter profession to create fair working conditions and build greater language justice in our communities. The most highly trained interpreters operate in court and medical settings, and many interpreters brought into smaller community settings are not trained. Our goal is to bring trained interpreters into every setting. Our interpreters and translators’ unmatched experience and high-level qualifications mean we can provide language services for various settings and specializations. We work with local community organizations and nonprofit organizations to large businesses and conferences, in addition to interpreting in courts and other legal settings.
Before we go, is there anything else you can share with us?
Working with this group has given us a greater appreciation for our team! We each bring such different talents to the table. The work setting we have developed here at MNTIC has given us a platform to let our other talents shine through. Whether from communication to administrative skills, it lets our co-op members share their other skills that previously had gone unnoticed in our day-to-day translation and interpretation jobs. From collaborating as a team we have all learned so much from each other. We each bring different perspectives and experiences, so it has been fun to work to incorporate it all. We are so excited for more people to join our co-op and see all the hidden talents that rise to the surface.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.mnticoop.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mnticoop/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MNTICoop
